Redcar v Scunthorpe – Thursday 13th July – 7:30pm

Redcar SG Petch Bears will be looking to get their play off charge back on track, as they take on the Scunthorpe Scorpions at the Media Prima Arena on Thursday night (7:30pm start).The Bears suffered a frustrating defeat at home to Peterborough last week, with the Bears struggling to contain the fast starting visitors. Bears manager Jitendra Duffill admits it was a disappointing evening:

It was hugely disappointing to lose at home last week. Peterborough dominated the meeting early on and we paid the price for getting off to such a slow start. Losing Danny and Charles in heat 7 was a massive blow and there was no coming back from that. It’s put a serious dent in our play off hopes and has undone a lot of the hard work we have put in away from home so far this year.

Charles Wright suffered concussion in that heat 7 fall, and will miss the meeting as he is now forced to rest for 9 days before riding again. The Bears will operate Rider Replacement for him. With Jason Garrity still just short of fitness, and hoping to return in the Bears fixture at Peterborough on Sunday, Aaron Summers will guest in his place. Duffill has sympathy with Wright, and is not expecting an easy time against a Scunthorpe side with a point to prove:

This week’s fixture will not be made any easier with the absence of Charles Wright. I really feel for him as he has simply found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time too many times this year. Using rider replacement means that everybody has to step up and we cannot afford to underestimate Scunthorpe. Even though they have struggled on the whole in 2017, they have some very capable riders amongst their ranks and will be keen to make up for the points we have taken at their place this year.

Scunthorpe have Michael Palm Toft returning to the number 1 spot after the last set of averages were released, with Tero Aarnio returning to the reserve spot. Lewis Kerr performed well for us while guesting a few weeks ago, whilst Josh Auty and Carl Wilkinson know the fastest way round the Media Arena Prima so it all adds up to being an exciting meeting!